OFR Bloghttps://www.federalregister.gov/blog
The official Blog of the Federal Register 2.0 ProjectMon, 02 Mar 2015 18:47:57 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.3When is this document going to publish?https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/02/when-is-this-document-going-to-publish
https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/02/when-is-this-document-going-to-publish#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 16:42:29 +0000http://www.federalregister.gov/blog/?p=3450Continue reading →]]>A question we get asked pretty often is “When is this document I read/heard about going to publish?” And the answer seems a bit secretive. According to 1 CFR 17.1: “…Upon receipt, each document shall be held for confidential processing until it is filed for public inspection.” So until the document is made available to the public via Public Inspection, the Office of the Federal Register is not permitted to discuss anything about it to the public.

The issuing agency has its own communications timeline. Often an agency will notify the public that it has created a document and sent it for publication in the Federal Register. However, until it is officially posted on Public Inspection, our office cannot discuss it. With a typical publication timeline of 3 business days, usually we know about a document publishing about two days before the public does, but it’s not our document, so we can’t discuss it.

In fact, a submitting agency can request that the document be pulled from publication. The reasons for such a request vary greatly. Some of the reasons are:

We get a lot of questions here at the Office of the Federal Register. Some folks are interested in commenting on regulations. Check out our earlier post on our commenting feature: http://go.usa.gov/hXN3. Others are looking for help finding regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). And from 1994 to now, all of the regulations published in both the Federal Register and the CFR are available online at www.federalregister.gov and www.ecfr.gov, respectively.

A question we get a lot is “Where can I see the collections that are not online?” That is where the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) comes in.

From the Government Publishing Office: “The Federal Depository Library Program was established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government’s information. GPO administers the FDLP on behalf of the participating libraries and the public. Information products from the Federal Government are disseminated to these nationwide libraries that, in turn, ensure the American public has free access to the materials, both in print and online.”

These libraries can be found all across the country. And they all maintain collections of the Federal Register and the CFR. To find the Federal Depository Library nearest you, go to: http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.jsp. We always recommend calling ahead for library hours and to be sure the collection you are looking for is kept at the library near you.

If you have any questions about our office or what we do, you can post them here, on our Twitter account @FedRegister, on Facebook, or email us at FedReg.info@nara.gov.

Greeting children at a daycare facility adjacent to his daughter Sasha’s school in Bethesda, MD, June 9.

The fifth volume of the Public Papers of President Barack Obama is now available online and for purchase. These volumes are produced right here at the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) by our staff in the Presidential unit. This particular volume is 888 pages and includes the text of his public speeches, news conferences, messages and statements, communications to Congress and Federal agencies, and a photographic portfolio.

There are two volumes for each calendar year, so each 4-year term results in 8 volumes. The OFR Presidential unit indexes all the material by subject and name and lists them according to document category.

The entire volume, as well as others from Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, William Clinton and George H.W. Bush, is available online at http://go.usa.gov/SeUz.

For a history on the Public Papers of the Presidents, check out our page on Archives.gov: http://go.usa.gov/Se5k.

Image: 2011 Public Papers – Greeting children at a daycare facility adjacent to his daughter Sasha’s school in Bethesda, MD, June 9. http://go.usa.gov/Sey5

The official Public Inspection site, www.ofr.gov was fixed in the early evening on January 16 and has been working without issue since. We want to thank everyone for their patience as we addressed the matter.

You can keep up with Public Inspection updates by subscribing to them on www.federalregister.gov or following us on Twitter.

* * * *

Our official site, www.ofr.gov, is still down due to technical difficulties. We have been able to update the Public Inspection list at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection. We are working with the Government Publishing Office to resolve the issues with www.ofr.gov as quickly as possible. The Public Inspection desk is still available at our office at 800 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington, DC 20002.

We apologize for the inconvenience and will post notifications here, on our Facebook and Twitter accounts when it has been posted online.

]]>https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/01/update-public-inspection-january-16/feed2Public Inspection Issues- January 16https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/01/public-inspection-issues-january-16
https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/01/public-inspection-issues-january-16#commentsFri, 16 Jan 2015 15:27:16 +0000http://www.federalregister.gov/blog/?p=3413Continue reading →]]>We are currently experiencing issues getting the Public Inspection List posted to our sites at www.ofr.gov and subsequently www.federalregister.gov. We are working with the Government Publishing Office to resolve the matter as quickly as possible. The Public Inspection desk is still available at our office at 800 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington, DC 20002.

We apologize for the inconvenience and will post notifications here, on our Facebook and Twitter accounts when it has been posted online.

]]>https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2015/01/public-inspection-issues-january-16/feed1eCFR May be Down for Maintenancehttps://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/12/ecfr-will-be-down-for-maintenance
https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/12/ecfr-will-be-down-for-maintenance#commentsThu, 18 Dec 2014 19:00:05 +0000http://www.federalregister.gov/blog/?p=3400Continue reading →]]>Many of our customers access the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) via www.eCFR.gov. It is an up-to-date, unofficial version of the CFR. The official version is still the printed CFR books. This weekend, from 9 a.m. Saturday, December 20 to 4 p.m. Sunday, December 21, the site may be down for maintenance. This should be the extent of the outage. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If you have any questions or want to keep up with what’s happening at the Federal Register, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

]]>https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/12/ecfr-will-be-down-for-maintenance/feed5OFR Director Charley Barth Stepping Down for New Opportunityhttps://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/10/ofr-director-charley-barth-stepping-down
https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/10/ofr-director-charley-barth-stepping-down#commentsTue, 28 Oct 2014 16:54:44 +0000http://www.federalregister.gov/blog/?p=3385Continue reading →]]>It is with great sadness that we announce the departure of our Director, Charley Barth. Charley has accepted a new position as an Executive Director with another company. Charley’s last day as Director is Friday, October 31 2014.

Charley joined the National Archives and Records Administration in July 2012 as the Director of the Office of the Federal Register. In this role, he has been responsible for administering the Electoral College process for the 2012 Presidential election and working with our partners at the Government Printing Office to deploy our mobile application for the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. Under his leadership the office won the Bright Idea award from Harvard University for their work on www.federalregister.gov. Consistent with our goals to Make Access Happen and Connect with Customers, he has worked alongside the Government Printing Office and eRulemaking Program Management Office to create a new virtual regulatory environment that will increase transparency and public participation during the notice and comment process. Charley led the development of a strategic plan for the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register and conducted the first-ever Federal Register Liaison Conference for our executive agency partners.

We want to wish Charley the best in this new chapter of his career. Amy Bunk, current Director of the Legal Affairs and Policy Division at the OFR, will serve as acting Director of the Office of the Federal Register until a permanent hire is made.

Each year, there is one update every book in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) receives: a change in color.

Starting in January 1970, CFR volumes were bound in paperback form with a stripe of color on both the spine and face of the book. The color changes every calendar year, and is voted on by staff and chosen by the Director of the Federal Register. The change in colors helps libraries keep an accurate and orderly set of CFRs. The colors are also used online in the electronic database fdsys.gov. Colors can be repeated, but generally not within ten years of each other.

The first color edition (1970) was printed in brick red. This color was used again in 2013, and is referred to in-house as “Regulatory Red”. It was chosen to appear alongside the blue anniversary logo commemorating the CFRs 75th anniversary, forming a patriotic trio of colors.

The color selection process has not been without its faults. In 2006, the CFR sported a bright yellow. Over time this yellow faded to a chalky remnant of its original hue. The result was a full year of faintly outlined white cover text, making the 2013 volumes hard to differentiate from each other while on the shelf. For this reason, pastels and other light colors are generally avoided when selecting the next year’s color.

The purple for the 2014 edition was selected in honor of OFR’s then new Director, Charley Barth (purple is his favorite color).

The next year’s color is typically decided on during June or July. As such, next year’s color has already been chosen. Without further ado: the 2015 edition of the CFR will be printed in: Pantone 355U green.

]]>https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/09/cfr-color-selection-for-2015/feed11New “Submit a Formal Comment” Feature!https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/07/new-submit-a-formal-comment-feature
https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2014/07/new-submit-a-formal-comment-feature#commentsThu, 31 Jul 2014 15:07:10 +0000http://www.federalregister.gov/blog/?p=3359Continue reading →]]>We’re excited to announce the release of our newest feature – the ability to comment on a document without leaving FederalRegister.gov. We’ve been working with the team at Regulations.gov to make this possible and are excited to share it with you all.

Previously, whenever you clicked the ‘Submit a Formal Comment’ button on a document we would send you to the Regulations.gov site to complete your comment. Now, when you click that button we will load the comment form from Regulations.gov and present it to you in the context of the document. Working together with Regulations.gov we are seeking to expand your access to the rulemaking process and we believe this is the logical next step in this process.

With the launch of this new feature we also wanted to provide a brief overview of how the commenting process works. Before we jump into the details, here’s a brief summary.

Summary

The commenting process allows the public to take part in the rulemaking process – however the agencies assessment of these comments is not simply a count of how many for and how many against. FederalRegister.gov now provides not only the ability to comment directly from FederalRegister.gov but also the ability to be notified when your comment is publically available and to receive notifications when future documents mention the document you commented on, helping you stay informed throughout the process. The Office of the Federal Register serves as the publisher for other agencies rulemaking documents and as such cannot provide guidance on substantive questions about a document.

The Federal Rulemaking Process

The Federal Register plays an important role in the Federal rulemaking process but that role is limited. The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) serves as the publisher for other agencies rulemaking actions. In this role, OFR does not and cannot answer substantive questions about a document published in the Federal Register. Our role is to ensure that documents are published timely and accurately such that the public can participate in the rulemaking process.

A Federal agency can begin the rulemaking process for any number of reasons, including: receiving a petition from an individual, interest group, or industry group; pro-actively reviewing its own regulations; or being ordered to by a court decision.

The rulemaking process can start in a number of different places – including but not limited to – a request for information, asking for comments on a petition submitted to the agency, and the publication of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).

Most Executive branch agencies will accept comments via email or on Regulations.gov – and, with the launch of our new commenting feature, through FederalRegister.gov (where we send the comments to Regulations.gov on your behalf). As part of the rulemaking process, they will use Regulations.gov to manage the information within a docket. Some agencies will also add any comment they receive via email to that docket so that anyone interested can see the complete collection of public comments.

Not all agencies use Regulations.gov, but for those that do, they include the docket number in the document they give us to publish and we use the Regulations.gov API to load the information related to that docket on FederalRegister.gov (including the comment form we now present to users).

FederalRegister.gov does not collect or manage any comments. When you submit a comment from our new commenting feature, we send that information onto Regulations.gov via their API and do not store the comment on our site. If you are a registered MyFR user, we store your comment tracking number for your convenience (but none of the information contained within your comment).

Once a comment is submitted to an agency, staff at that agency will review each comment for any personally identifying information (such as social security numbers) and for any inappropriate language. Agencies may choose to not make such comments publically viewable or may choose to redact information as needed. Depending on agency policies, submitted comments may be approved in an ongoing, ‘rolling’ basis or all together at the end of the comment period. If you created a comment via FederalRegister.gov and choose to be notified when your comment is publically available, you will receive an email when this takes place on Regulations.gov.

While agencies must assess and respond to substantive comments they receive through the rulemaking process, the assessment is not simply how many for and how many against. Agencies will review any new issues raised and respond to substantive comments often grouped by concern. Their responses most often appear in the final rule or, if appropriate, in a supplemental NPRM.

If new issues are raised that the agency thinks important, the agency can issue a supplemental NPRM, incorporating those issues and asking for more comments. The agency could also decide to not proceed with the rulemaking at all. If they decide not to continue, they may take no action or they may publish a document in the Federal Register formally withdrawing the proposal. These are all agency decisions that the Office of the Federal Register is not a part of.

Because of the fluidity of the rulemaking process, each step may take a different amount of time and steps may be repeated. As a result, it can be difficult to know when follow-on documents are going to be published. Part of our new feature launch includes the ability to choose to be notified when a future document mentions the document you commented on. This subscription can be managed just like all your subscriptions on FederalRegister.gov and you can choose to stop receiving these notifications at any time.

In a unanimous vote of 386-0, the House of Representatives passed the Federal Register Modernization Act, an act amending the Federal Register Act of 1935. The act includes measures to better utilize technology, ease the administrative burden placed on agencies seeking to publish documents, and continue the Federal Register’s dedication to using print and digital platforms to better serve and inform the public. To read the act or follow its progress through the Senate, use any of the links below.